Holiness V. Chosenness V. Being Above the Law

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Transcript

Transcript

Music, welcome. Good morning.

I am taking my Talib. I am opening it up. I am turning the part that's called the Atara, the part that goes around your neck, and facing it toward me, even though it's going to be facing away from me. This is always the complicated part when we're explaining it to 13 year olds who are going to be putting it on for the first time publicly at their pre mitzvah, that you start the part that's supposed to be facing outward, facing you, and then you make this like fancy Cape move. But anyway, if anybody wants to join me in doing that fancy Cape move after taking a moment to breathe and bless that'd be great just taking a moment to arrive in body and breath. Breathing into all of your all of your joints, starting with your toes, wiggle them, your ankles, knees, hips, you can, sort of like do a little hip roll, whatever position you're in, standing, sitting, lying, or like pelvis circle type thing. I

breathing into your heart center,

breathing into both sides of your body, right and left. Chessed and kevora, netzach and Hod, strength and mercy, or rather, I guess, loving kindness and boundaries, endurance and radiance, and then breathing up into your third eye, and then imagining, like breathing like a like a whale has a little blowhole at the top of his head, like imagining your Keter, which is the crown Saphira, or chakra at the top of our Head, kind of connecting that which is above and beyond to us. All right, baru kata, Donal, Sharky channel moments with tavinu Lizzi but seat, seat, I mean,

Hi, I'm

going to put on a modani that's also a kind of intention for all of us this morning. So if you have an intention for yourself as she recline, who is one of the ritual leaders at labsual in New York, as she's leading we rise and moda ni, feel free to put your intention for your day in the chat. Take a second to think about it and go ahead and share it. Oh, wait, hang on. I wanted to share sound in a way that will share the sound. All right, here we go. We've seen this one before. That's just a good one.

Bye. Us in hope in prayer. We find ourselves here in hope in prayer. We're right here in hope, in hope in prayer, we find ourselves we find ourselves right here, in hope, In prayer, we're right here. We're right here. We rise.

Rise. We rise. We rise in hope, in prayer. We find ourselves here in hope in prayer, we're right here in hope in prayer. We find ourselves here in hope in prayer. We're right here. We. Eyes, humbly hearted, won't be divided. Rise. Spirit to guide us. Moda, Ani moda, moda

ani

le Fauci,

humbly,

won't be divided. Spirit

to guides rise

all of the children rise. Rise, elders with wisdom. Rise. Ancestors surround us. Rise in hope, in prayer. In hope in prayer, we find ourselves here in hope in prayer, we're right here in hope in prayer. We find ourselves here in hope in prayer. We're right here.

All right,

let's see. Oh yes, let's not get lost, Gail, but I'll see you there later. I well, I want to say hi to everybody. I had all kinds of songs and things I wanted to reflect on today. And also it's, I wanted to talk about the Parsha both parshas, ahimat, Kedoshim, it's a double header, double parsha. And there's a lot of good stuff in both. And I, and I had, and this is, like, you can, we could. I'm not going to set up an actual poll, but I have the slightly the tame is the word anodyne, like, benign. Is that? What that means? Like, the tame sort of version of, like, we could study and, like, look at a look at a version of looking at the Parsha. That's what's that? Or we have one that could, like, Veer in a slightly more spicy political direction. But that's also Torah. That's also like, let me be clear, it's also Torah. So think about what your preference would be there, and already one person's like, spicy. All right, we got a couple for spicy. Okay, good to know, great, great, great. That's helpful. So speaking of, speaking of this week, I went to a rabbinic gathering with trua. So trua is the rabbinic call for human rights. It is an organization that 2300 ish Rabbi's and cantors and clergy people are part of across the country. And there was an Israeli counterpart, rabbis for human rights in Israel. And anyway, it's, I mean, it's exactly what it sounds like. It's, it's rabbis and clergy people who care about human rights. And it manifests in, it could be local issues, like in New York, they actually were part of a coalition to end solitary confinement in prisons. And, you know, work on issues of mass incarceration in the state of New York. But they've also worked on many different, many different domestic issues. They also have a take on ISRAEL PALESTINE, which is, you know, the same take that I would say Mishkan is our approach, which is basically like Israelis and Palestinians. You know, have no other future, other than to work out their differences diplomatically and so supporting, you know, any efforts toward peace and coexistence that look like that, while also, while also recognizing and. And affirming the importance of a Jewish state. But anyway, you know, a lot of the stuff that seems very common sense to me is, in fact, controversial, or rather, I have discovered that it is controversial. Not all Rabbi's are part of this organization. Not all Jews think the same thing or feel the same thing about some of those issues, as I'm sure you know and have discovered in many conversations with people you know in your friends and family circles. But anyway, it was really, really nice to get together with this with this group of Rabbi's. It was a Midwest Regional gathering, so it was like 30 or 40 people from in and around the Midwest talking about issues of immigration and, you know, deportations and free speech and anti semitism, and anyway, they asked if I would lead Mincha for the Rabbi's, which was a real honor, because, you know, like Leading for Rabbi's was, you know, I'm that was self conscious, and, you know, like, Oh, what if I'm choosing music that they don't like or, you know, they have, they know different or better stuff. But it was actually really amazing. Like, the second I start, I brought my little guitar, and the second I started playing, people were closing their eyes and swaying and singing and clapping. And I just realized, actually, you know what Rabbi's really like being led most, most Rabbi's just are happy to have a break. So anyway, I started off minha. Minha always begins with ASHRAE. I started off with this version that I we've done this, but we don't do it often, so I'll, I'll play it for you here. And this is by Allie Halpert, and I will put the words of ASHRAE up here for you. Here we go.

Great. Here we go.

We'll be doing these words of English.

ASHRAE, Yosh, oh,

I can't do it up there. That's gonna be way too high. I'd be screaming, let's try it down here.

Oh, this is gonna be low but I think it'll feel really good well. So for those people who have low voices, enjoy this.

ASHRAE yoshvei,

ashrei oshvei Teja. Ashrei oshvei takha, oh yeah, hallelujah,

one more time. Ash re yo Shrey, ashrave

Teja, ashrave Taha, oh yeah, hallelujah.

I sing for you. I sing for what is holy and is true. I sing for all creation, for life and liberation. Every day I knew

I sing. You can repeat. It's like a call response. Keep yourself on mute. But if you want to enjoy that together,

I sing for you. I sing for what is holy and is true altogether. I sing for all creation, for life, liberation.

Oh,

yeah, hallelujah,

hallelujah.

I sing for you. I sing for what is holy and is true.

I sing for our creation, for life and liberation. Every day I knew.

Tehila tarunabar, COVID, sarashi, Olam, varvana, hallelujah, I'm

gonna do this in parts, this little Torah study here. So I'm going to fast forward us to the schma, but then I'm going to, you'll see where I'm going. But now I'm going to jump quickly to the middle of this week's parsha. And it's the middle, even though it's the beginning of Parashat Kedoshim, because it's a double parsha. So akhremoth begins with giving Aaron instructions for how to conduct the Yom Kippur atonement service. And akhira moat means after the death. And so it's like picking up in the narrative after the death of Aaron's sons, and so it's a sort of strange, weird time lapse. It's hard to tell exactly like, are we? Are we two weeks from the last time we had like, the last time we talked about Torah, we were talking about parashami, and that's what happened. Aaron's sons were zapped by God in a strange fire. Not clear what happened. But now it's two weeks later in the Torah reading, but it seems like it's just like just afterward in actual chronological time, not clear. But then the Parsha continues and we and we're in parashat Kedoshim, and the Taurus goes on to elaborate, not just rules for Aaron, the high priest, but vayeta Bar Adonai el Moshe, lemur God, spoke to Moses saying da bar el ADAT bene Israel speak to the congregation, the entire community of Israelites, the amarta alejand, say to them, Kedoshim, tehiyu, Kika dosh, Ani Adonai, Elohim, you will be holy, for I Adonai am holy. And one question is like, Haven't we already established this? We've spent so much time talking about the holiness of the high priest and how the high priest purifies everybody and atones for everybody, aren't we? Aren't we made holy through that? And the answer is no, kiddo, Shem to he you will be holy. God says to the whole community of Israelites. And then it goes on. You know what follows here is what's called the quote, holiness code. This is the alternative reading on Yom Kippur afternoon. And the holiness code is all of these different laws that presumably are the prescription for a life of holiness. You will revere your father and mother. You will keep my Sabbaths. Don't turn to idols a bunch of stuff about making sacrifices when you reap the harvest of your land, don't reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Don't pick your vineyard, bear or gather your fallen fruit, leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God. Don't steal. Don't deal falsely and deceitfully with one another. Don't swear falsely by my name. I am God. Don't defraud your fellow Israelite. Don't commit robbery. Don't hold the wages of your laborer until the morning, you guys, I felt so bad. I had a I had a person comes and cleans our house once a week. She's awesome. She's so or not, once a week, once a month, one time, every month, she comes and, like, does it once over on my house. And I realized this morning I forgot to pay her yesterday. So of course, like, I Venmo her, but I was violating this commandment, don't hold the wages of a laborer until the morning. Ah, it's like, it'll be okay. It's happened before, I'm sure. But like, right, okay, don't render an unfair decision. Don't FA don't show poor. Don't show deference or favor to the poor or to the rich. Judge your kin fairly. Do not deal basically with members of your people. Don't profit by the blood of your fellow Israelite. Oh, and this is where it starts to get really interesting and juicy. Do not hate, do not hate your kinsfolk in your heart, but rather reprove them, give them feedback and incur no guilt on their account. Don't take vengeance or bear a grudge against members of your people, but rather the AHA, love your fellow as yourself. And then it goes on with a bunch of different stuff too. But this is, like, you know, a section where it's just like, packed with some of the most, some of the most well known of the examples of Jewish law that make us feel really proud of having this be part of our legal tradition, you know, like it starts here, and so I now I'm going to just let that hang for a second. I'm going to go back to the Shema, where now you want to invite us to take a moment. Remember that we are holy, and close our eyes, as is the custom when we say the Shema, and

just take a couple deep breaths, I feel like I just did a lot of fast talking and reading. And if there's anything still kind of like that stood out from you, from that list of from that list of meets vote like, remember what it is, and then let it float away as you focus on the words of the Shema. And then we'll come back to it in a second, and we'll just focus on each word of the Shema and via hafta, and you shall love Shema, Israel,

Adonai,

elohinu, knew. I don't

know they are After it Adonai, they have Keith,

and you will love

with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words which I'm speaking to you today shall sit on your heart. You shall repeat them to your children. Speak of them when you sit in your home, when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be symbols between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates. This last one, you guys, I'm really excited, because for any of you who came to who came to Lawndale with us, or have been kind of following the story of Mishkan and Lawndale. So after visiting the their new Legal Center, their new restorative justice Legal Center, I threw down the gauntlet for folks that that came and also the whole community, and said, I want to raise $50,000 for this Legal Center, for this restorative justice center. That is like living the kind of justice that I actually think the Jewish tradition wants us to practice, one in which we incur no guilt because of each other, but actually grow and become better people when we have done harm. And that's what the what the Justice Center is all about. And so instead of sending young men between 18 and 25 to prison and getting in the prison pipeline and, you know, cycle of re incarceration, you know, because they can't get jobs and the whole thing, they live in this center for a couple years, and they get job training, and they get technology training, and they do and they do restorative justice with the families or people they have hurt, who are often in their own community, they are able to stay and be in relationship with their own families, with their own children and parents. Anyway, I am, I am proud to say that it took under two weeks, but we actually did it. We raised $52,000 and if you want to contribute, I'm sure they would appreciate more. But you know that's not enough to donate a room in this building like this is a $22 million center. So I had this thought that maybe we could donate a mezuzah, you know, not a whole room, but a sign when you walk into the room of the imperative to love, right? Because inside of every Mazda scroll are the words that we just read, you know, the words of the Schnabel and via hafta, you will listen, you will pay attention, and you will love. And the way that you love is you speak of these words in your home, in the residence, and when you walk along the way, when you leave the residence, when you lie down and when you rise up. And I just thought like the symbolism is beautiful. And, you know, the Torah is a text that that Jews and, of course, legal Christians. And a Lawndale Christian Legal Center is a Christian Legal Center. We share those texts. So anyway, I just wanted to share that with you at, would they appreciate that the CEO of the Center said he loves the idea. So, yes, I wrote, I wrote to him, as you know, before, before I threw this idea out there. I said, Is this something that you guys would think was fun or would appreciate? And he said, Yes, absolutely. That sounds great. And anyway, so for anybody listening to this later, because Gail, it's not like we're also giving the. Of the $52,000 which, you know, they and they wrote back and they said, You know what the truth is like relative to the whole project, it doesn't seem like a lot, but, like, men are coming in off the street, they need clothes. They need toiletries. They need. There are so many things that are actually in the category of, like, not a high dollar amount, but incredibly impactful and necessary. And for any of you who have nonprofits that you donate to, including Mishkan, that's true. Any nonprofit needs paper, needs, office supplies, needs to keep the lights on every month. And you know, whatever you're able to give helps. So never think to yourself, oh, it's just it won't matter. All of it matters. So anyway, that's kind of a fun thing. Coming off of the heels of the via hafta. Oh my gosh, it's 826, do we even have time to be spicy? Well, here, let's do a healing prayer, because that's not spicy, and it'll feel weird to do a healing prayer after studying spicy Torah. So why don't we? Why don't we collect ourselves for a moment on the heels of thinking about supporting people and institutions that we love and care about, and in some cases, are doing good work, and in some cases are just people we love, let's take a moment to think about who it is we want to send some healing to some support too. Feel free to unmute if you don't want to type it in the chat and you just want to, like, say, say, folks, out loud you're thinking about little Winnie Godfrey, Gottlieb, Aiden Gilbert, Barbara, Julius, hasida Bat Chaim varivca,

Deena milha bensava,

members of our community who are struggling with recovery, in recovery, who are trying to get pregnant, who are struggling with mental illness, Sending them strength, sending them compassion, sending them patience. You.

I'm just looking at all these healing prayers coming in for everyone in Israel who's threatened by the wildfires, for everyone in Gaza who's threatened by war and for

anyone who's forced to be part of violence that doesn't want to be and would not choose it for themselves. For anyone recovering from medical procedures, cancer treatment, body pain, yes, thank you.

Okay, I'm just thinking of a tune. Deana, Elna, rafana. La Oh, thank you and Merle hostages that are still still in Gaza because, well, I won't, I won't start editorializing now, but sending them prayers.

Here's the There we go. Rafuzza Lima and strength to every one of them.

El el na refa, El na refa na LA.

Man sending complete healing of body and mind and spirit on a prayer to end. And war to bring people home to solve problems with words not bombs

here and everywhere. Say I'm main. I mean I'm main. Oh, all right. And now I want to do Keith Tom, because some people are only here for the half hour. And I want to make sure to do what people came for before they have to go off. And then we'll study some Torah. So mourners, Kadesh, Kadish at home, to mark your love, yes for Mark near love. Barry costs. Anybody else in minion this morning who's remembering somebody Teresa Owen? Is there anybody who would now Lewis College? Anybody who would like to lead us in mourners coddish this morning.

I can do it.

Thank you. Melanie, alright, well may, may all of their memories be blessings, and people can unmute to respond if you want.

Vika Rashmi, Rabbi, amen, Israel. Bag Allahu is man Kareem may Rabbi Arviat, Roman vietnase, Viet Hadar Viet Hale Viet Hadar, Viet, Hale. Viet, halal. She made a shot. Gayla mean Colbert, sherata to shmata, Tommy, Rabbi Al Mab imrou, each Lama rabbi, mean Shamaya as a Shalom. Elena via call you sir. El the alkali

and Yeezy. Honolibra, may their memories be blessings. And I just saw this Susanna Amy's niece, Emily, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for her loss. Thank you.

Carlos jenish and mother,

okay, transitioning and goodbye to everybody who has to take off at 830 So, all right, we read from parsha Kedoshim. We read the words Kedoshim, tahiu ki kadosh, Ani holy. You will be for, I, God, I'm holy. And so there's a, there is a parsha in the book of Numbers. And many of you will know what I'm talking about. It is Parasha Korach, not if you have a passing familiarity with even the name Korah. Okay, so for those of you who don't, Korah is, he's a, he's a relative of Moses, kind of like a, you know, second cousin once removed type thing. And he comes before Moses and Aaron with a band of people, like 250 people, and says to them, in front of the entire camp, you have gone too far. Moses, Aaron, the whole community is holy, and God is in their midst. Why do you place yourselves above all of us. What basically like Who died and made you God Moses and Aaron, you know. And so he's a controversial figure. He is roundly seen by Jewish tradition as like, insubordinate, insolent, you know, like Wrong, wrong. No, no, Cora, no. Moses is Moses was appointed and you weren't for a reason. You know, sit down, Cora. But I feel like in modern democratic society, and certainly in like progressive circles, it's like, well, we like Korach. That's the right idea. Of course, all of us are holy. What Who died and made you king? We live in a democracy, not a monarchy. No, like Moses, sit down, you know, do a little Tim soon, pull yourself back a little and let more people take up space. But it the it remains the case that Cora's objection. It sounds really good, but when put in front of God, basically, they have a contest. They have, like, a, you know, like a, well, I guess let's, like, put it before God. And if one of us, you know, gets zapped into a fiery, unnatural death, then, well, that guy was wrong, you know, I get, like. Let's and and, of course, Korach that the earth opens up and swallows Korach and his band of followers. And that is how we as the we as the readers learn that, in fact, there was something wrong with Korach motivation, or with his words, or there was something not that, like God didn't like it. You know, he was not speaking for God, I feel like there's a little more resonance here now when dealing with a populist leader who claims to speak on behalf of the people you know, and is in fact clearly not. Is in fact clearly speaking in the name of personal gain and benefit. So you know, you have to what, like, who, when, when you're looking at leaders, when you're when you're looking at yourself and your own desire to kind of push into leadership, like, what's really the motivation, what's going on? So anyway, that's the background for the last chapter in this book, which I don't know if you've picked up and read, but I think it's a worthy read in the midst of all of the news and all of the, you know, all of the discourse about how, how should we Jews feel? You know, how should we Jews feel about what has happened and what is happening in Israel and Gaza, you know, since October 7 and so, this is Peter beinarts book. It's small. It's called being Jewish after the destruction of Gaza. It is exactly what it sounds like he is Reckoning and talking out loud about how we as Jews, who, you know, we just went through all of those holiness laws that we looked at, you know, that value the stranger and the orphan. We care about the sanctity of human life, the holiness of every person. How do we reckon with the, you know, flattening of this, you know, entire like section of land in which so many people live, hospitals, libraries, schools, etc, not getting into the like, the political part of it, were they, but were they harboring, you know, terrorists and rocket launchers and being meeting spaces for terrorists, like all of that is part of the conversation. But I think what he wants to introduce is the part of our conscience that actually doesn't deflect from that, but reckons honestly with it. And the price of that conclusion you may arrive at is it's, you know, worth the price paid. But I think many Jews aren't even getting to the point where they can reckon with that level of pain and suffering, because they don't want to look at it. We really don't want to look at it. So his last chapter in the book is called Korach children. Korach children. So here's what he writes. I'm just going to read this out loud. I'm not going to read you the entire chapter, just going to start it.

We are the children of Korah. He appears in the book of Numbers once the Israelites journey through the desert has already gone seriously wrong, he assembles a band of rebels against Moses and his brother, Aaron, and accuses them of elitism. All the community are holy, all of them, and God is in their midst. He proclaims, why then do you raise yourself above God's congregation? God responds by prepare, excuse me, Moses responds by preparing a test to see who enjoys divine favor. He offers incense to God and has the rebels do the same. God appears and the earth swallows Korach whole contest over, but the question remains, what did Korach do wrong? There are many opinions, but the one that should haunt us comes from Yeshayahu Leibovitz, the iconoclastic, Orthodox social critic whom the philosopher Isaiah Berlin called the conscience of Israel. Leibovitz focused on Korach use of the word holy. He noted that four verses earlier, God had told Moses to tell the Israelites to observe all My commandments and be holy to your God. Holiness was conditional. It depends on keeping the commandments. Korah, by contrast, said the Israelites were already holy. It wasn't a standard they needed to meet. It was inherent in who they are. What made Korach arguments so dangerous Labovitz argued was that it corrupted another key concept in the Hebrew Bible. Chosen this for Labovitz, it was essential that being chosen by God, and this is, remember, he's an orthodox rabbi, that was not a metaphor, like it might be for us, like it was not a metaphor. It was a, you know, a real idea. He said it was essential that being chosen by God did not make Jews better than anyone else. It meant they had a special set of obligations to follow the Torah as commandments, not a special set of virtues. In the Bible, the prophets do not tell the Jewish people they can do no wrong. They tell them it is precisely because they have a unique relationship with God that their wrongs can never be excused you alone, I have singled out of all. All the families of the earth, says the prophet Amos, in God's name, therefore I will call you to account for your sins. But Amos wouldn't needed to say that had Cora's message not been so seductive. Who wouldn't be tempted by the claim that chosenness, sometimes called election, makes you holy no matter what Rabbi shy held, whom we've read many, many pieces by here, a prominent contemporary theologian notes that the prophets were constantly forced to fight against interpretations of election that guaranteed the people impunity and rendered them impervious to critique. Since the beginning, some Jews have wanted to place us above the law. Labovitz believed that Corona heresy echoed throughout Jewish history. He traced it through the 11th century Spanish poet and philosopher Yehuda Halevi, the 16th century Rabbi known as the Maharal of Prague, the elements of Hasidic thought that date from the 18th century in Poland and Ukraine. Scholars can debate whether these disparate figures and movements make up a coherent ideological lineage and how much support their view has in the Torah itself. But even if Labovitz was right that Jewish exceptionalism constituted a persistent and deviant strain in medieval and early modern Jewish thought, it couldn't do much damage. So what if a few dreamers in Moorish Spain or the Silesian shtetl consoled themselves with the idea that deep within us lies a spark of the divine they didn't have the power to do anything about it. But all of that changed with the creation of Israel, only once Jews control a state with life and death power over millions of non Jews. Does Korach claim of intrins intrinsic Jewish sanctity become truly dangerous? And to understand why, it's worth remembering that the Bible considers states, which in this time meant kingdoms very perilous things, while they be necessary to avoid chaos, they can easily become instruments of oppression. When the Israelite elders ask the Prophet schmuel, Samuel for a king, God instructs him both to grant their wish, their wish, and lists the many cruelties a monarch will inflict. And then he goes through and he talks about some of those, some of those stipulations, and the difference between bad and good king. And the Talmud says, the difference between a bad and good king, or, excuse me, the difference between a good and bad king is the former, a good king, both judges and is judged. And so this kind of goes, it follows this line of thinking, the sort of exploration of the question of you know, to what extent we feel ourselves to be above the law, or treat ourselves as if we are above the law or treat ourselves differently, then we would expect some other people to act in the same situation or or think that other people are treating us differently than any other people would act in the same situation. So in any case, I found that to be provocative and important, and I'm going to turn off the recorder now and open up a conversation. So for everybody listening on the podcast, if you want to have conversations like these, see you in minion soon. And next Wednesday morning, we're actually hosting a really, really impressive woman who is the CEO of an Israeli relief organization called Natan that does worldwide disaster relief. Really like incredible organization. And so that'll be the conversation we have next week at 830 Okay, and recorder, how do I do this? Stop recording. Okay, do.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai